Action needed now to tackle unemployment in Enfield & Haringey

Local Labour London Assembly Member Joanne McCartney calls on the Mayor and Government to tackle 10% per cent unemployment in Enfield and Haringey as the jobless rate across London reaches the worst level for almost fifteen years.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics this week revealed that one in ten people acrossLondonare now unemployed. The number has risen by 28,000 in the last three months to 425,000. TheLondonjobless rate of ten per cent is the highest since 1997 and the second highest in the country.

Enfield and Haringey have two of the worst unemployment rates in the city at 10.1% and 10.6%. Local London Assembly Member Joanne McCartney said the figures were “devastating”.

Calling on the mayor and government to take urgent action, Joanne said: “These devastating figures are a direct consequence of the government’s policy of putting people out of work in the public sector and stifling growth in the private sector. It’s very worrying for Enfield, Haringey, London and the UK. The government and mayor need an urgent plan for growth and to get people off the dole and back to work.”

According to the latest official figures there are currently 1,587 vacancies in Enfield and just 488 in Haringey. This is against the harsh facts that there are 13,800 people unemployed in Enfield, and 12,600 unemployed in Haringey.

Joanne continued “This proves what we already knew – local unemployment is real and it is devastating families. Independent experts predict there will be another 600,000 children in poverty nationally over the next year. This is serious, it is happening now, and we must see some action from Government to stop it.”